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| Just as in my last post......the holiday greeting is post holiday....as is our internet service here....it must be the Bahamian way! Guy and I are confident you all had a great xmas day with friends and or family! just as we did! |
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| Days before xmas day, I soaked my chickpeas , cooked and mashed them up. I then added the necessary ingredient to make hummus. I filled some Bon Maman jam jars I had been saving and gave them as gifts to our cruising friends nearby. |
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| We were invited to a breakfast hosted by Gary an ex NHL player we had met a week or so earlier at a sundowner cocktail hour gathering at a yacht in the anchorage. We were two of the 50 + guest at the Green Turtle Club Resort Restaurant on Dec 24th. It was all A La Carte! How generous of him! Thank you Gary it was so fun! |
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| This is later on ...on Christmas day. Guy, George and John, a very talented mandolin player , entertained many with their music..... Earlier on in the cloudy, misty, rainy xmas day, we prepared our pot-luck dish of cuban black beans. By noon, wearing our traditional xmas day t-shirts our kids had given us years ago, we boarded our little wooden dinghy with our beans and Guy's guitar and crossed the little anchorage. It was one of the second times we endured rain since we have been in the Abacos... Fellow cruisers arrived and put out their dishes.......all 50 + of them....It poured the most when we filled our plates from the several picnic tables filled with our xmas dinner. What a feast it was even in the rain. The event took place outside behind Brendal's Dive shop! I did not take pics ....as I did not want to get my camera wet! LOL! The Abacos are in the Northern chain of the Bahamas. As such they get very little rain in the Winter. Strong reinforced SE trade winds but not much rain. Just a few sprinkles without warning. The Summer is a whole other thing. Lots of rain and lighter winds...unless a Hurricane is brewing since Summer time is Hurricane season. |
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| We are in Green Turtle Cay..... |
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| Rarely does a day go by that we don't walk along the shore. Being on a small island, we either walk on the Atlantic side or the Sea of Abaco seaside .... |
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| This is the Atlantic side....the colour is memorizing! The light colour bottom is white sand. The darker lines in the water are reefs. I counted 4 rows of reefs. When the wind is up you can see the white caps breaking on the reefs. |
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| On the negative note, as we walk admiring natures beauty, we find things that have drifted from who knows where....here, Guy pulls up a huge light lens that must have been on some large ship at one time. |
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| And then there is the PLASTIC.......GRRRRRRR! |
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| It's Saturday, Dec 21st. We are off to a "Happy Hour" at the Pineapple Club. A short dinghy ride away....near New Plymouth where we later enjoyed several different congregation's 'Christmas Choir' performances at St Peter's Anglican Church. It seemed weird to go to a Happy Hour then to a church but hey it worked out great. The congregation invited us to a reception afterwards at the parish hall....Lots of chowder, buns and sweets....everyone wore a smile! |
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| Guy and George ....Pre Happy Hour and church.... |
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| A sign at the Pineapple's Bar and Grill |
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| The view from the bar! |
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| The sunset! |
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| This is the Abaco Sea side......As beautiful as the ocean..... |
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| This sign is likely for the weddings this beach must host! |
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| So........the definition of relaxed? |
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| Reading my book...under a straw umbrella, beside my captain in the pic above.....life is good! LOL! |
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| I walk this beach daily.....it is so peaceful.... |
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| Just like the brochures! |
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| Lobster Hunters getting ready for the hunt!!! |
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| The fearless hunter straps a knife to his leg to ward off the mean and dangerous fish! |
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| Without a wet suit, or gloves, this spearless lobster hunter puts on his fins! |
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| Finally the mask and snorkel! |
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| There he goes...... They went to the closest reef offshore....after a few minutes of spotting turtles, colourful fish and plant sea life, Guy noticed a barracuda. He describes it as about the thickness of a leg and a row of mean, sharp teeth. It was very territorial and wanted Guy off it's reef. Just in case Guy did kill anything it stuck right beside him. Then in front of him. Then by his side! The darn thing followed him everywhere. It kept too near for his comfort so after about 20 minutes, he was out of the water....the others were out soon too! No Lobster today! |
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| Life in the Bahamas is not always perfect....for example....when you are varnishing the teak on the topside and you bend over..... Guy had been varnishing....happily listening to the music on his ipod. As he was cleaning up, his ipod was no longer attached to the ear plugs. It was in his shirt pocket. He bent over and SLPASH! He, "swearingly", scrambled to get his snorkeling gear out of the cockpit lockers, changed into his bathing suit and a few minutes later jumped in to find it at the bottom! |
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| Here he is beside the boat!.....he found it! |
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| Not so sure where he is going but here it is....Once back on board, he rinsed it in fresh water, and let it sit in the sun for 24 hours. Then he put it in a jar filled with rice. After three days we were amazed it worked! But as it turned out ....it eventually bit the dust after a few days! |
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| So here is the captain confident he can turn his luck around with a game of gin with me.... |
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| Hummmmm! Hee Hee Hee! he is still confident! |
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| Just not his day !!!! He gave me my "Gin" card! |
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| Since then he has been sitting on the side decks with bread and feeds the fish around us! We will be going to a New Years Eve party at the Bluff House Resort with fellow cruisers. New Years day we will attend the yearly "JUNKANOO" in New Pymouth. I will post part 2 of "What does one do in the Bahama's" in 2014. Happy New Year and all our best wishes for super health and happiness! xoxoxoxo Guy and Louise |
